US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun two days of high-stakes diplomatic talks in Beijing aimed at trying to cool exploding US-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge.
He started his mission by meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for an extended discussion on Sunday, to be followed by a working dinner.
He will have additional talks with Mr Qin, as well as China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, and possibly President Xi Jinping, on Monday.
Neither Mr Blinken nor Mr Qin made any substantive comments to reporters as they began the meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
Despite Mr Blinken’s presence in the Chinese capital, the prospect of any significant breakthrough is slim, as already strained ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent years.
Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.
Mr Blinken is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi agreed to Mr Blinken’s trip at a meeting last year in Bali. It came within a day of happening in February but was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult brought on by the discovery of what the US says was a Chinese spy balloon flying across America which was shot down.
The list of disagreements and potential conflict points is long, ranging from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, to Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Mr Blinken will also be pressing the Chinese to release detained American citizens and to take steps to curb the production and export of fentanyl precursors that are fuelling the opioid crisis in the United States.
US officials have said Mr Blinken will raise each of these points, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their entrenched positions.
Shortly before leaving, Mr Blinken emphasised the importance of the US and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication. The US wants to make sure “that the competition we have with China doesn’t veer into conflict” due to avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.
Mr Biden and Mr Xi had made commitments to improve communications “precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications”, Mr Blinken said on Friday.
Mr Xi offered a hint of a possible willingness to reduce tensions, saying in a meeting with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Friday that the United States and China can co-operate to “benefit our two countries”.
“I believe that the foundation of Sino-US relations lies in the people,” Mr Xi told Mr Gates. “Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.”
Mr Biden told White House reporters on Saturday he hoped that “over the next several months, I’ll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how … to get along”.
Chances for such a meeting could come at a Group of 20 leaders’ gathering in New Delhi in September and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in San Francisco in November.
Since the cancellation of Mr Blinken’s trip in February, there have been some high-level engagements.
CIA chief William Burns travelled to China in May, while China’s commerce minister visited the US, and Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met Mr Wang in Vienna in May.
But those have been punctuated by bursts of angry rhetoric from both sides over the Taiwan Strait, their broader intentions in the Indo-Pacific, China’s refusal to condemn Russia for its war against Ukraine, and US allegations from Washington that Beijing is attempting to boost its worldwide surveillance capabilities, including in Cuba.
And, earlier this month, China’s defence minister rebuffed a request from US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin for a meeting on the sidelines of a security symposium in Singapore, a sign of continuing discontent.
Mr Austin said on Friday that he is confident he and his Chinese counterpart will meet “at some point in time, but we’re not there yet”.
Underlining the difficulties, China rejected a report by a US security firm, which blamed Chinese-linked hackers for attacks on hundreds of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world, as “far-fetched and unprofessional”.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained that the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them.
That followed a similar retort earlier in the week when China said Mr Qin had in a phone call with Mr Blinken urged the US to respect “China’s core concerns” such as the issue of Taiwan’s self-rule, “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop harming China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition”.
Meanwhile, the national security advisers of the US, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks on Friday and agreed to strengthen their defence co-operation, in part to counter China’s growing influence and ambitions.
This coincides with the Biden administration signing an agreement with Australia and Britain to provide the first with nuclear-powered submarines, with China moving rapidly to expand its diplomatic presence, especially in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific island nations, where it has opened or plans to open at least five new embassies over the next year.
The agreement is part of an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym Aukus (Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States).
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, issued a statement of cautious optimism as Mr Blinken started his first day of meetings in Beijing.
“Hope this meeting can help steer China/US relations back to what the two presidents agreed upon in Bali,” she said in a statement on Twitter.
Speaking ahead of Mr Blinken’s arrival, two US officials played down hopes for major progress and stressed that the trip is intended to restore a sense of calm and normalcy to high-level contacts.
“We’re coming to Beijing with a realistic, confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competition in the most responsible way possible,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the top US diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific.
Kurt Campbell, the top Asia expert at the National Security Council, said: “Intense competition requires intense diplomacy if we’re going to manage tensions. That is the only way to clear up misperceptions, to signal, to communicate, and to work together where and when our interests align.”
